So far, i have simply downloaded, unpacked and tried running the "changeit" icon and i get the "Error: can't load main.iff file".

I've read through the .guide and read all about tooltypes etc.... especially where you need the tooltype on the icon to point to a directory
ie DIR=Pirates
That was the default one, there is a directory called Pirates, and i can see main.iff in there.

I have tried the other icons for both AGA and RTG (i should be able to run both) and checked the icon scripts that all appear to already be correct, but each and every attempt gives me the same error "can't load main.iff file"

Other items for requirements include png.datatype, yeah got that with OS3.9 and the main.iff is viewable in dopus, so i don't think i have an issue there.

Make sure that all needed SnoopDos functions are activated. Normaly it should catch the fault. Use Multiview to check that main.iff (filetye is PNG. Naming is misleading.) will load/view correct. I've only V0.6 (works) and can't check V0.9. 0.9 mention "- changed the parameters syntax" that might cause your problem?

Didn't know which snoopdos functions were needed so i switched them ALL on and there isn't even a call for the main.iff happening.
You are the programmers i emailled had a similar solution - grab the iff, rename it to PNG, then load it up and actually save it as IFF....
Didn't work.

Moved the whole program to my Amiga 1200 with OS3.1 and i get the same error... i got a feeling i'm meant to do more than just unpack the archive and copy the folder and run it...... the instructions aren't perfectly clear to me but feel something else is missing, and i know Amiga programmers arne't good document writers, i used to be a good reader and got most things to work, but not so much these days.

Installation should be like you did. Depack, copy it somewhere and start it. Are you sure you picked the right archive?

What happens if you start Multiview and pick the main.iff file? Does it display it correct? If yes your datatypes setting should be ok. Else there is your problem.

Here SnoopDos shows that ChangeIt locks "main.iff" and then opens png.datatype. Make sure that at SnoopDos Functions on the left side "Only show fails" and "Ignore Workbench/Shell" are not selected. I would also not select "Packet debugger".

What happens if you start Multiview and pick the main.iff file? Does it display it correct? If yes your datatypes setting should be ok. Else there is your problem.

Here SnoopDos shows that ChangeIt locks "main.iff" and then opens png.datatype. Make sure that at SnoopDos Functions on the left side "Only show fails" and "Ignore Workbench/Shell" are not selected. I would also not select "Packet debugger".

...deleted it now so can't test further but everything was working. Tried all the numerous icons that start different games.

Yes i got the authors awesome message - he was the one who mentioned about resaving the IFFs (that are actually pngs) as actual IFF, that didn't help.

The only thing in here i have not tried that was suggested is checking out the images in multiview (I use visage which is maybe doing its own decoding that's not native?)
Will get back to the Amiga later today and see if i can work out anything.

Visage loads the images.
Multiview does not, but gives no error, displays nothing, its like i didn't do anything.

Snoopdos as default doesn't tell me anything except a failed tooltype (called 639).
I have this feeling that while i have BB1 and 2 on, i nicked a few datatypes from BB3/4 thinking those were safe to update some months ago, i'll seek out the BB1/2 datatypes, especially PNG and ILBM and see if that's the fix.

Seems something is broken on your system. Multiview open around 10 libraries on startup on my 3.1 install. Run SnoopDos then Multiview and it will show you. Check at least datatypes.library, workbench.library and iffparse.library. If I choose an IFF image then ilbm.datatypes will open and the IFF is shown. Show us your SnoopDos log then we can tell you more.

The log is to short. My SnoopDos log has more then 100 lines on my 3.1 system doing the same as you. Try the same on your 3.1 system. Multiview should/have to work.

I can't say how OS3.9 behaves and only guess what is on your system. Maybe you have some patch or something else that redirect Multiview or generally special filetypes to Visage or other tools? But then Visage should at least show the image. Someone with OS3.9 knowledge could tell you more or give a reference SnoopDos log.

OK, here's what happened, the A4000 now displays .IFF. I run mutiview on the A1200 and it displayed the .iff file.... but what i noticed in snoopdos was it was still using visage to play it. and it was looking for visage in SYS:Utilities/visage .... which on my A1200, is exactly where it is located.

On the A4000, visage is located in SYS:Programs/Visage.
Despite me changing the icon for multiview to point to this location, snoopdos reported it was still looking in the wrong location, so i manually copied visage to the utilities directory, and low and behold, multiview now views .IFF, including the ones from the changeit directories..... but changeit still says it can't load the main.iff file and exists.

So multiview isn't exactly fixed, but it works (rather it point to visage in my correct installed folder and not have two copies running around)

In the end, hasn't solved this game from running.

It might be big, but would you like to to switch on EVERY snoopdos function and run changeit and report THAT log to here?

Next time you can disable "Packet debugger" because in most cases it is not needed.

Sorry, I still can only guess what is going on. At line 276 and 277 "main.iff" (what is a PNG) is locked I think (path is truncated). Here (OS3.1) ChangeIt v0.6 does an OpenLib on datatypes/png.datatype, then some other libraries, datatypes.library, picture.datatype and then the next image (skin.iff). ChangeIt has successful loaded.

I would suggest that you first "repair" your OS installation, then go over ChangeIt. I.e. Multitview without any tooltypes set should open/show text files, amigaguides, IFF/PNG/JPEG/... by itself. You can use the Shell and simply type "Multiview <path:filename>". For example "Multiview S:Startup-Sequence" for a text file.